Celebrate 50 years of manned spaceflight..There’s an app for that.

Fifty years ago today on April 12, 1961 Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin launched into space in a Vostok capsule. After one orbit and 108 minutes in space his capsule landed safely. The UN celebrated this milestone last Thursday by adopting a resolution declaring April 12 “International Day Of The Human Space Mission”. As well, Software developer Vito Technology has just released version 5.2 of Star Walk for the iPad 2 to mark the first manned spaceflight.

This is an impressive piece of software that will give you a new perspective on our sky. For starters the location feature of the iPad 2 sets your location and the app displays details of the major astronomical events of the day.

A calendar shows highlights of the week and a tap will take you to a map of the sky illustrating the event

The picture of the day is an impressive collection of dramatic pictures of the cosmos.

This latest version of Star Walk takes advantage of the sensors and compass in the iPad 2 to sense when you have tilted the iPad to look at the sky it then shows you the view of the sky above you in real time. That alone is pretty spectacular but with the iPad 2 Star Walk supports full Augmented Reality..that means the rear facing camera is turned on so you are looking directly at the sky with major planetary objects marked for identification..Spectacular..if you had no previous interest in astronomy this app will change your mind.

Star Walk 5.2 is available at the Apple App Store for $4.99. If you have an iPad 2 this is a must buy app. The iPhone version is on sale for $0.99 here

Bob Benedetti

Former RCAF Fighter Pilot Bob worked for CTV Montreal as a Reporter, Producer and Executive producer for 35 years retiring in 2004. Bob started reporting on personal technology in 1995 at CTV and continues today at Home Technology Montreal